Speed: Win has lifted team's belief

03 Sep 2011 08:00:19

Wales boss Gary Speed feels Friday night's 2-1 win over Montenegro has given his side a much-needed injection of belief ahead of their trip to face England at Wembley.

Goals from Steve Morison and skipper Aaron Ramsey capped off an excellent performance from a Welsh side who were unrecognisable from that which lost 2-1 to Australia last month. The win gave Wales their first points of their Euro 2012 qualifying Group G campaign, as well as a first win in a competitive fixture since October 2009.

And Speed, who had come in for criticism after winning just one of his first five games in charge as he sought to develop a passing style, said: "It's been tough for the players, the last six months we've tried to develop a passing style and sometimes the results have been sacrificed to drill that in."

He added: "In previous games we've passed in the wrong areas, but it's a process we've had to go through to develop that style.

"We caused them lots of problems. We had the confidence which can be hard after previous results. When you come into a job and get results like we've had it's difficult to drum in that belief. Now we've got that.

"I'm pleased for the players more than anything. They've put lots of effort in without much reward and now they've got that reward. I hope that will have done us the world of good. We've got some fantastic players but you do need that belief and that will give us that after a win against the team top of the group."

Gareth Bale was the home side's stand-out performer, with his pace and trickery proving far too much for the Montenegro defence to handle. The Tottenham man set up Ramsey's goal with a typical surging run, and was at the heart of everything positive about the Welsh display.

But there was some bad news for Speed as David Vaughan and Craig Bellamy picked up bookings that will rule them out of the meeting with England. While Vaughan saw yellow for a cynical foul, Speed felt new Liverpool signing Bellamy was unfortunate to go in the book for pulling back.

He said: Nobody's more disappointed than Craig and David. To play England at Wembley doesn't happen very often. Craig's wasn't even a foul let alone a yellow card so to rob him of that is very harsh. I think the referee realised his mistake because he let things go in the second half that he had given yellows for in the first.

"It is disappointing that Craig misses out in those circumstances and for David who has been a big part of what we're doing."